Joe Barakat is back in charge at West Harbour and looking to move his side up the Shute Shield ladder, and quickly.

Barakat knows the Pirates can score points, but wants them to be tougher and more resilient on the other side of the ball. If they can do that, they’ve certainly got the talent to play finals footy this season.

Overview with Joe Barakat: 

“Things are looking pretty good. We’ve played our last trial, we had a good hit out against Easts on the weekend and went down three tries to two. We were leading two tries to one at half time and performed really well,” Barakat told Rugby News. 

“We had one of our other trials against Gordon washed out, then we played Newcastle. From what I’ve seen, it’s going to be a close competition. 

“Trial form doesn’t count for much, we don’t want to be at our best for a few more months, but I think some of the results over the last few weeks show that there is going to be some movement up and down the ladder. 

“We certainly weren’t perfect in the trials. We turned over too much ball and gave the opposition too many opportunities, but all in all, I was really impressed. 

“A lot of our development is going to be about us, not so much about what our opposition is doing. I think we’re going to create a lot of opportunities, we’ve just got to be patient enough to convert them. 

“It’s going to take us a little bit of time to click, with so many new players and a lot of disruptions over the summer.

“In saying that, if we’re in a position to win games early in the season, then we have to find a way to win them. No matter how ugly it is, it’s going to be important to win early this season.”

2021 positions (after 10 rounds): 10th – 3 wins from 10 matches

Ins: Presley Tufuga, Siketi Tevao (New Zealand), Shane Keil (rugby league), Afa Pakalani, Apakuki Ma’afu (England), Will Grant (ITM Cup). 

Outs: Tonga Tangitau, Otto Wendt, Jordan Sharp, Faiva Faiva, Kaliova Nacina, Cooper Henwood. 

Key areas of improvement: 

“The two areas we’ve focussed on have been our defence and lineouts. We’ve come on leaps and bounds in both areas already,” he said. 

“In our trial against Easts, we won 86% of our lineout ball, which is a big improvement. Plus we stole quite a bit of their ball as well. 

“Our defence is also improving. We leaked two tries in the second half and one in the first half. That’s well down on the five to six tries we were averaging last season. 

“Again, it’s only trial form and the intensity always goes up a notch when the season starts but we want to make sure we are consistent in those two areas all year.”

Player(s) to watch: 

“We’ve got a couple of halfbacks who are battling for first grade. Will Grant grew up on a property an hour west of Scone but he’s been playing his rugby over in the ITM Cup and fell into our lap. 

“He’s a tough little halfback and he’s battling with Chippy (Dimitry Chipizubov) and Max Page for that No.9 jersey. 

“The two forwards that have really impressed me have been Pres Tufuga and Shaun Dickson. Shaun is just a toiler of a No.7. If there is ball there to be taken, he’s going to take it. 

“I also think our centres are going to do quite a bit of damage. Kuki Ma’ufu, Malcom and Shane Kiel.”

Bold prediction for the season ahead:

“Our focus is the win games of rugby. We want to make the top eight and we think we’ve got the right players and depth to make the quarter finals in 2022.”